Manage Duplicates

Hello, and welcome to our pre-recorded webinar on managed duplicates. My name is Matt, one of the training specialists here at DonorPerfect. And today we are going to talk about a very useful feature in DonorPerfect that can help you manage duplicate records. One of our mantras here at Read More

Hello, and welcome to our pre-recorded webinar on managed duplicates. My name is Matt, one of the training specialists here at DonorPerfect. And today we are going to talk about a very useful feature in DonorPerfect that can help you manage duplicate records. One of our mantras here at DonorPerfect is clean data in, clean data out, meaning if you consistently enter clean data, you can expect accurate, consistent results when reporting or generating a mailing list. There will be times when that just isn’t the case, and cleanup will be required, as managing duplicate records is one of the most common issues organizations face when maintaining their database. Our goal is to reduce the time and effort that you spend identifying and merging duplicate records. Today, we will cover why you should merge duplicate records and how this can help your organization. We are going to look at the different ways you can use the manage duplicates feature to clean up records, and just a quick disclaimer: the contents of this system may contain features or fields that are different than your own. In this case, every DonorPerfect system is capable of creating a backup and merging duplicates, but you may see some fields or the layout of our test system that looks slightly different than what you are used to. So, what are the benefits of merging duplicates? First and foremost, accuracy. Accuracy when reporting, accuracy when segmenting your database, when you have duplicate records, it can be almost impossible to get an accurate donor account, especially if one person’s gifts are spread across two or three separate donor records. Merging duplicates will also help with communication, as duplicate records can lead to sending multiple communications to the same person, and also accurate record counts within your database. A few things to know about what happens in DonorPerfect when you merge duplicate records. Once combined, the main screen address from the duplicate record will be stored as an alternate address on the final record, DonorPerfect will also save the email and phone numbers from the main screen, so you will not lose any address or contact information when you merge all transactional records from the two duplicate records, including gifts, pledges, contacts, and alternate addresses will be merged together in the final record again, so you will not lose any of this information. Finally, all flags on the deleted record will be added on to the final record as needed. The Manage Duplicates widget allows you to take action when you identify potential duplicates from multiple locations in DonorPerfect, so when you do identify a potential duplicate record, you can use manage duplicates to merge those records, create a link between records, mark as not duplicates, or save for later review. You’ll find the Manage Duplicates widget in the top right corner of DonorPerfect when selected, allowing you to manage duplicate records without interrupting your current task. So, where are you going to be able to use this widget? When you do identify potential duplicates, you can take action in several locations within DonorPerfect. First, you can manage duplicates from the search results screen or the constituents list. From here, you are able to combine manually, create a link, mark not duplicates, save for later, or also view and export. So, let’s jump over to DonorPerfect and take a quick look at an example of seeing the Manage Duplicates widget from the search results, so if we search for Barney, we know Barney has multiple records in our system, and we’re even going to get a little tooltip pop up to identify that we have the select duplicates option across the top, so when you do identify that you have duplicate records in the search results, the select duplicates option is here. Once clicked, that will populate the manage duplicates widget in the top right, where you can enter the donor IDs and and then use the drop down to take action, so in this case we are going to mark Barney, and Barney actually they’re already marked on our saved for later list, so we are going to remove them from save for later. And do that again, just as a quick demonstration. So, once you’ve looked up both of your donor records, you can choose from the drop down to combine, create a link, mark as not duplicates, or save for later review.

So, for right now, we’re just going to mark Barney save for later review, and we are going to go ahead and go to the constituents list and view our example here. So, in the constituents list, you also see we have the select duplicates option in the top right corner. Once you identify that you have duplicate records from your list, you’re able to click the button and enable the manage duplicates widget, and from here again we can search for our duplicates, and then take our action. So in this case, I forget Barney’s second donor ID, so we’re able to click look up donor, or we can type in. In this case, we’ll just use the last name, and then we see that his donor ID is 1079 and we’ve got Barney in here again, and then we’re able to use the resolve duplicates to resolve the issue, so for this example we will just go ahead and combine these two records manually and right, and when you choose to combine, you are brought to a screen that is going to list out the data from each existing record. So, in the left column we have the source record, donor ID 1079 and in the middle column we have donor ID 739 which is going to be the destination record, where both records are combined for Barney’s. So we’re able to scroll through Barney’s details here and choose from the different sides. In this case, if we wanted to choose Bedrock as the city for this final record, we’re able to click the radio button on the left side, and then same again. If we think that that’s the wrong zip code, we can go ahead and identify that we want this zip code from the left column, but also, if you prefer, you can always click into the final column and make changes. So, maybe if you wanted to spell something differently, or you just wanted to completely replace what you see there, you can click in, make those changes before you merge, and then once you’re satisfied, you are able to use the combine option across the top, and then these records will end up combined in the destination 739 donor ID, so all right, so in the top left corner, after the combination, you can choose to return to where you started. So this link will take us back to our constituents list, and then we would be able to resume if we were maybe just working in constituents, or whatever we may be doing, we can just get right back to our task. We are going to look at another example of what you can do with the select duplicates widget here. So I see that Joe B and Joe Brown both exist in here, so we are going to go ahead and select them with our duplicates widget, and we’re going to create a link between these two, because we know that they’re family members, but not necessarily the same person. So we’re able to create a link to tell DonorPerfect that these people are not the same. So once you do select to create a link, it’s going to take you to Joseph’s donor record directly to the links tab, and then you’re able to click to add a link. If you don’t know the donor ID, again you can look up your donor name here and then select from the list, and then you can choose your link type. In this, we’re just going to say they are siblings. And then from your link options menu, you can choose to mark these donors as not duplicates. Click save, and then that will update that link and remove those two from showing on further duplicate lists. All right, so the second place that you are going to find the manage duplicates widget is in your normal workflows, so if you are going through a report and you come across multiple donor records, you would be able to also enable the Manage Duplicates widget, and then combine, create a link, mark is not duplicates or save for later, so we will jump over to a DonorPerfect.

Report, and we’ll just take a look at an example of a constituent summary and all right, so you’ll notice that in this example we don’t see the button across the top to click select duplicates, but if we identify in this example, we’re going to use Erica and Sally Adams, identified as potential duplicates. We’re able to toggle the Manage Duplicates widget by going to the Utilities menu across the top, hovering over Manage Duplicates, and then click Select Duplicates. From here, it’s just the same process as before. Enter your duplicate donor IDs, and then use your dropdown, and then select the particular action for that donor. All right, so we are going to take a look at the third possibility for where you will use the manage duplicates widget, and this actually appears across the top of the donor records. So, on the main screen of a donor record, if the system has identified potential duplicate records, the widget will be present, and what this matching criteria looks at is the main screen email and the full address from here you’re able to again take the action to combine link mark duplicates and save for later, so we’ll just jump over to a donor record here, and if we go back to Joseph B, you’ll notice that across the top the system has identified that there are 28 potential duplicate records. What we can do is click the review duplicates drop down, and what this actually presents us with is five of those potential 28 options. So from here we can take action on some of these if we want to say that Joseph and test are not the same person, we mark them as not duplicates. We can close that particular match and then populate the next, so now we’re down to 27 potential duplicates, and you are able to work your way through the list, and maybe we’re going to save some for later when we want to go through this, but we know it’s not Barney Rubble, so we’re going to mark Barney out of there, and then you’re able to just work through and make all the changes that you need to make here on the donor record as well, and then just one additional note that if you’re an individual user that does not have permission to access merge duplicates or do not have access to specific donor gift data, you’re not going to be able to finalize these actions through the widget, so you would want to reach out within your organization to your administrator, so that they could enable those permissions for you, do all right, so just a quick recap here. The places that you’re going to find the Manage Duplicates widget from search results, you’re able to use the Select Duplicates button, enter the donor IDs, and then select your action. Also, within the constituents list, you’re able to identify your duplicate donors. In the top right corner, there is an available button to collect select duplicates, and then you can enter your donor IDs again. Take your action, either combine them now or mark them as safe for later, or not duplicates. And then the final place where you are going to be using the manage duplicates widget is from report results. In this case, you do not have an active button on the screen, you are able to go through the top menu in DonorPerfect under Utilities, Manage Duplicates, and when you click Select Duplicates, this is going to enable the Manage Duplicates widget, where you can enter the duplicate donor IDs and take action, you Alright, so now we’re going to talk about the duplicate maintenance option. When you are ready to tackle duplicate records in bulk, you can use duplicate maintenance. However, prior to making any bulk changes, we do recommend that you back up your data. Base that way, if you make a mistake during the process, you’re able to restore to that saved backup and essentially undo your merge, so that you can try again. However, if you do forget to make a backup, you can always reach out to our support department. They are able to restore records to their original state, but in some cases a fee may incur when restoring from server backups. So, real quick, we’ll just jump back over to DonorPerfect and show you an example of how to make a backup.

So, under the utilities menu across the top, you can select backup and restore. DonorPerfect is going to store three backups. Here you are able to come in on the top and select create new backup, and once you have created this backup, you would be able to return here to restore as needed. All right, so when you do choose duplicate maintenance, what you are going to be presented with is the options to run a report for potential duplicates, and you’re able to use a combination of the criteria to search through your database to identify potential duplicate records. So, if DonorPerfect identifies two or more records that match the criteria that you have selected, it’s going to display them in the report, and then you’re able to take your action from the report directly, and you can just kind of work with this criteria, select some, unselect others, and identify additional duplicates. So we will jump back over to DonorPerfect again and take a look at the manage duplicates, so across the Utah menu again, utilities manage duplicates, and then we’re going to duplicate maintenance. So in this event, we are going to uncheck the zip code and address, and we just want to look at the system. Who has matching last names and potentially first names? So if we scroll down here, we can click show report, and then we are going to be presented with hopefully not too long of a list, but a list of potential matches. So here are your options to take action. Across the top, we’re able to again combine. You can either choose to combine the simple or advanced, and when we click advanced to combine, it’s going to look just like how we combined before, where we’re presented with the options to choose our data and then combine, or you can choose to mark as not duplicates or save for later, so right, and then, so the save for later option, we are going to take a look at that as well. That is going to allow you to resolve the duplicate records that have been marked for review, and then within this menu, you’re also able to manage records that have been marked as not duplicates, so back to donor perfect, and under the utilities menus, manage duplicates under save for later, you’ll see a list of all of the donor records that have been marked saved for review. From here on the right side, you’ll have your option to resolve the duplicate, whether that be to combine manually, create the link mark as not duplicates, or in this you can even remove them from this saved list. The same to be said for the not duplicate side, you are able to toggle on the top left over to the list of people who have been marked as not duplicates. From here you can use your action once again to resolve the duplicate, choosing to combine, create links, remove from the not duplicates list, or move them over to the saved for later list, so Alright, so just as a quick recap, you are able to select the merge option that works best for you. With managed duplicates, you’re able to address duplicate records in a variety of ways and stay focused on your current task, so you want to be mindful of selecting the option that works best for you in the time. Also, you want to remember to check from Duke, check for duplicate records from time to time, especially before a mailing and after imports and online form downloads, and then you do want to remember it’s best to best practice to make a backup before you make any major changes in DonorPerfect. So, please create a backup, that way you have an undo button and you’ll be able to reverse any issues that you create, but that is. Hour webinar on the Manage Duplicates feature. Thank you.